Cultivating Cycles: Waterloo Architecture Students Win Top 10 AIA COTE Award
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Competing against 1,600 participants from 79 schools, Waterloo Architecture students Kailing Mai and Lora Tarassov were one of ten winning teams at the 2026 American Institute of Architects Committee on the Environment (AIA COTE®) Top Ten for Students Competition. This marks the third consecutive year Waterloo Architecture students have won awards at this prestigious competition.
Their project, ‘Cultivating Cycles’ presents an expansion of the existing Farmers’ Market in Cambridge, Ontario, Canada. Mai and Tarassov’s vision preserves the original structure while highlighting the farming processes and practises that bring produce to consumers. The redesigned programmatic layout moves visitors through interactive spaces such as a garden classroom, a community kitchen, a shared dining area, a greenhouse for composting all of which revolve around a central community garden. As the core of the project, the garden acts as a physical and symbolic mainstay connecting interior and exterior spaces.
Speaking with market vendors and visitors was a meaningful part of the process. It made us realize how the market went beyond being just a physical space for selling or buying food. It was about creating a sense of community and building connections. We wanted to further expand on these moments of connection while creating more opportunities for visitors and vendors to come together.
We wanted our building design to follow the principle of circularity, which is reflected in both the architectural systems and material choices. The building integrates active and passive systems that work together to minimize resource consumption while also creating a more adaptable and sustainable building. We chose the structural system and materials with a 50-100 year lifespan in mind, while also considering their potential for re-use at the end of the building’s lifespan.
Jurors described the winning project as a “thoughtful adaptive reuse strategy that gives new life to an existing community resource. The careful relationship between the original market and new additions preserves the character of the site while introducing spaces for shared activity.”
Mai and Tarassov’s project was envisioned for the 4B Comprehensive Building Design studio at Waterloo Architecture. Walter Bettio, Michael Bootsma, John McMinn, Amrit Phull, Quan Thai, Shiyu Wei and Jaliya Fonseka (coordinator) were the teaching team for the studio course. Kailing Mai is now a graduate student at Waterloo Architecture and Lora Tarassov joined Delft University of Technology as a graduate student.
The AIA COTE® Top Ten for Students Competition is sponsored by The American Institute of Architects Committee on the Environment (AIA COTE®), in partnership with the Association of Collegiate Schools of Architecture (ACSA). Each year, the competition recognizes ten exceptional student design studio projects that integrate health, sustainability and equity.